A weekly address from Patrick Adams,
President of St. Louis Community Credit Union

Make No Small Plans Here

If I pronounce the letters O-R-U, do you have a clue? If I say O-S-U? How about M-U, I-U, or my all-time favorite I-U-P-U-I? My guess is that you get the drift and have hooked on to the idea that these are abbreviations for institutions of higher learning.

OSU is “The Ohio State University.” Very prominently discussed during college football season is OSU because of their perennial station as a top five team year over year. MU is the hometown favorite, i.e. Mizzou. U of I is across the river in Champaign, Illinois. IUPUI is one of my favorites for just how you say the abbreviation. Pronounced phonetically, this university is known as “oooie-pooie” and is the collaboration of Indiana University and their northern Indiana counterpart Purdue University located in Indianapolis. They don’t play football to my knowledge.

ORU doesn’t play football either. They’re better known for their theology. Oral Roberts University is in Oklahoma and in conjunction with their locale of being at the buckle of the Bible belt, they punt on football and huddle up with religious leaders instead.

ORU, in my opinion, has one of the very best mission statements for a post-secondary learning institution in America. In that category, they win the national title. In all honesty, I don’t know of any other university’s tag lines, but my guess is that they are inferior to the expectations of ORU students.

“Make no small plans here” says it all, don’t you think? Noodle on that for a while. Expectations are high. If you go there to achieve mediocrity, chances are you’ll have a rough go of it. To borrow from some weightlifting vernacular – “go big or go home.”

I love the encouragement to achieve at the highest possible level. Our country has been built on big ideas starting all the way back with the idea of democracy and getting out from under the reign of a monarchy. Big ideas make the world a better place. I love the guy or gal who when posed with the negative intimation of “why” asks the question “why not?” Cancer research, the Jerry Lewis Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy, and eradicating Alzheimer’s in our lifetime comes to mind.

Whether a butcher, a baker or a candlestick maker, one should make plans that call for exceedingly, abundant effort that is world-changing. Who wants to be just one more guy or one more gal mired in a pool of stale thought and outdated plans? Not me.

Don’t know what “oooie-pooie’s” mission is. Nor do I know the others mentioned times thousands of universities across the county. But I do know this. “Make no small plans here” sets the bar pretty high. Good for Oral Roberts University. Keep it up.

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Patrick has been employed with St. Louis Community Credit Union for more than 30 years. As a Community Development Financial Institution, St. Louis Community offers safe and affordable loans, second chance checking accounts and branches in underserved areas as part of its overall community giveback. Patrick is proud to be associated with nearly 200 employees who have a laser-like focus on service to our members and the community. Learn more at stlouiscommunity.com